Kansas City’s sports scene is expanding into entertainment with a new film festival and the Chiefs getting behind the camera

We all know KC is a sports town, and now the Kansas City Film Office is also getting in on the game.

This summer, the office held its inaugural two-day Full Tilt Film Festival, a sports-orientated weekend of films and panel discussions centered on a niche particularly suited to this sports-obsessed city: storytelling at the intersection of sports, film media and culture.

Held at the end of August at venues around Kansas City, Full Tilt brought together filmmakers, athletes and entertainment-industry executives for screenings, panel discussions and live events. Friday’s programming included a 20th anniversary Friday Night Lights screening at Union Station, while Saturday’s festival activities largely took place on 18th and Vine. Other films included ESPN’s The Brittney Griner Story about the WNBA star’s imprisonment in Russia and The Future Is Flag, a documentary exploring the rise of flag football. Discussions featured speakers from ESPN and other major sports and entertainment companies.

The documentary Chasing Goals, shot in KC, directed by a local filmmaker and produced in part by the Chiefs and comedian Trevor Noah, not only premiered at the festival but was chosen to close out the event. 

The film, which follows young refugees who have resettled in Kansas City’s Historic Northeast neighborhood and found community, purpose and hope through soccer, will leave you a bit heartbroken. The story traces the enormous obstacles they’ve faced—from war and displacement to profound personal loss—and the resilience required to build new lives in an unfamiliar country. 

The documentary perfectly illustrates what Full Tilt was created to explore: the increasingly blurry line between professional sports organizations and entertainment companies.

Among the documentary’s producers are Trevor Noah’s Day Zero Productions, sports media studio Wavelength and entertainment studio Foolish Club Studios, which was launched by Kansas City Chiefs leadership in February 2025.

Foolish Club Studios represents the Chiefs’ ambitions well beyond game-day football. The company was created to develop original scripted and unscripted entertainment, both short- and long-form, including stories that aren’t necessarily about the Chiefs. It is separate from the team’s longtime in-house production operation, 65 Toss Power Trap Productions, which remains focused primarily on Chiefs and football content.

Even the new studio’s name reaches back into Chiefs history. Founder Lamar Hunt and the seven other owners who created the American Football League were dubbed the “Foolish Club” for having the audacity to challenge the firmly established NFL. The two leagues eventually merged, and Hunt’s once-foolish idea helped transform professional football.

Kansas City has become accustomed to thinking of itself as a major sports city. Full Tilt is making a different bet: that the city can become a place where important sports stories aren’t merely happening but are being discovered, financed, filmed and brought to audiences around the world.

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